parrot time - issue 10 - july / august 2014

Parrot TimeThe Thinking of Speaking Issue #1 0 July / August 201 4

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RReell ii gg iioonn iinn CCuu ll ttuurreeHHooww oouurr ppeeooppllee''ss ffaaii tthh sshhaappee aannddffoorrmm oouurr ccuu ll ttuurree

LLaanngguuaaggeess iinn PPeerrii llDDeeccll ii nnee ooff tthhee GGaall lloo--II ttaall ii ccss::EEmmii ll ii aannoo--RRoommaaggnnoolloo,, LLiigguurrii aann ,,LLoommbbaarrdd ,, aanndd PPiieeddmmoonntteessee

LLooookk bbeeyyoonnddwwhhaatt yyoouu kknnooww

Parrot Time is your connection to languages, linguisticsand culture from the Parleremo community.

Expand your understanding.Never miss an issue.

Contents

Parrot Time | Issue #10 | July / August 2014 3

32 At the Cinema - Xingu

6 Religion in CultureWhile we recognize people have many different religious views,or none at all, we sometimes overlook the way religion formsmuch of the culture around us.

29 Book Look

40 Where Are You?

1 6 Languages in Peril - Decline of the Gallo-ItalicsNot all endangered languages are brought to the edge becausethey are forbidden by a dominating conqueror. Sometimes, theyjust can't compete with a more popular rival language. This isthe case of these for Gallo-Italic languages: Emiliano-Romagnolo, Ligurian, Lombard, and Piedmontese.

Parrot TimeParrot Time is a magazine

covering language, linguisticsand culture of the world around

us.

It is published by ScriveremoPublishing, a division of

Parleremo, the language learningcommunity.

Join Parleremo today. Learn alanguage, make friends, have fun.

Departments

Features

05 Letter From The Editor

Editor: Erik ZidoweckiEmail: [email protected]

Published by Scriveremo Publish-ing, a division of Parleremo.This issue is available online fromhttp://www.parrottime.com

The editor reserves the right toedit all material submitted. Viewsexpressed in Parrot Time are notnecessarily the official views ofParleremo. All rights of reproduc-tion, translation and adaptation re-served for all countries, exceptwhere noted otherwise. All copy-right material posted in the public-ation retains all its rights from theoriginal owner. Parrot Time, Par-leremo, officers and administra-tion accept no responsibilitycollectively or individually for theservice of agencies or persons ad-vertised or announced in thepages of this publication.

Cover: We all need a breaksometimes to just clear ourheads and enjoy the outdoors.This woman is unwinding atthe beach, but she is stillprobably thinking aboutlanguages.

42 Words in Your Mouth - Bread

24 Word on the Streets - Italian Greats

22 Language Learning and TranslationIt isn't always beneficial to be thinking in you target languageas you learn. Sometimes, translating between your nativelanguage and the new one can give you more insights.

38 Celebrations - Hangul Day

PPaarrlleerreemmoo

LLeeaarrnnaallaanngguuaaggee,,MMaakkeeffrriieennddss,,HHaavveeffuunn!!

wwwwww..ppaarrll eerreemmoo..oorrgg

Letter From The Editor


W“Evolution is a process ofconstant branching and

expansion.” - Stephen Jay Gould

One of the key points to survival is the capacity for expansion.

Countries expand their borders to take more land and resources

as their populations grow and they need to protect themselves

from invaders. This is how empires are created. Languages expand

by absorbing words from other languages or inventing new ones to

adapt to the changes in culture as well as increase their speaker

base. Businesses expand to gain more profits and hire more

workers, increasing their reach and visibility.

Parleremo has also had to expand over the years, not simply in the

languages it provides materials and resources for, but also in the

systems it makes available to its members. A third way it has

expanded is by creating projects related to it in order to increase

its reach as well as branching into other mediums.

Parrot Time is an example of one of those projects. It provides

people that may not yet use Parleremo with a language and

cultural outlet as well as a view into some of the things Parleremo

is about. It also provides a means of promoting projects belonging

to other language enthusiasts and thus providing Parleremo members with another source of

information.

We have also expanded even further into the publications field, releasing free, simple dictionaries and

word search puzzles. I released an ebook earlier this year, “Find Your Way to Languages”, available for

sale online, to further raise awareness of the site as well as provide people with fresh information.

For those that want a more physical representation of their love for languages, we opened a Zazzle store

last month, which sells products such as shirts, buttons, mugs, and bags, all with language themes,

such as “Hug me, I’m a polyglot” and “Language Freak”. Profits from the store go to maintaining the site,

and thereby ensure the future of Parleremo itself.

Other projects are in development or expansion, such as a “Word-a-Day” system, being distributed

through Twitter (the beta testing on this has been going on for a while) .

To further keep track of all these projects and make them more clearly available to people, we began a

blog this past month called “View From the Town”. There you will find articles on languages but also

information regarding the happenings in Parleremo as well as activities in the other projects. There is

even an explanation of how Parleremo was built and an article on how this magazine, Parrot Time, is

made.

We hope to keep expanding into more outlets and projects in the future, and we hope you will be with

us!

Expansion

Erik ZidoweckiERIK ZIDOWECKIEDITOR IN CHIEF

MMuurrōō--jj ii tteemmppllee ooff OOmmoottoo sscchhoooollooff SShhiinnggoonn BBuuddddhhiissmm,, llooccaatteedd iinntthhee cciittyy ooff UUddaa,, NNaarraa,, JJaappaann

Special Feature - Religion in Culture


or many people, religion is a

very touchy subject. Those

that have strong religious

convictions often want others to

believe the same, and if they

don’t, a conflict may occur. The

tension can be just as intense

for those that who don’t follow

any religious covenants because

for them, they not only feel that

they are being pressured or

judged, they may also believe

that people of faith are stupid or

ignorant and won’t hesitate to

tell them that.

I believe that religion, like

science, is a way to examine and

explain the world around us. I

don’t see any real difference

between believing that an all

powerful being created

everything, or that a massive ex-

plosion in a vacuum started it

all. Both are beliefs that can’t be

proven, but they provide us with

some explanation we can use for

what we don’t know.

The reason for this article is

not to take sides, nor debate

faith versus science. I feel that

what you believe in is completely

up to you, and is personal. If

you wish to explain your beliefs

to another person, that is fine,

but don’t push it on them and

certainly don’t declare that you

are right simply because you be-

lieve it. . . that is circular logic.

What I wanted to examine is

how religious beliefs have af-

fected our cultures and, to an

extent, our language.

Buildings and StructuresI am an American and raised as

first a Baptist, then as a Unitari-

an. That means that for most of

my first two decades of life, I saw

churches as small wooden build-

ings, sometimes with tall

steeples on the top. The more

formal churches had stain-glass

windows and benches or pews.

Being religious basically meant

attending one of these churches

for an hour or two every Sunday

morning.

My first exposure to

something different was when I

was twelve. My grandmother had

been a Baptist missionary in Ja-

pan for seven years, during

which time she taught interme-

diary English. When she was in-

vited to visit some of her friends

there, my mother, sister and I

also travelled with her. This was

my first time I had left this con-

tinent and got exposed to a

completely different culture and

language first-hand.

Japanese culture is a mix of

traditional and modern ways,

and this is reflected by its reli-

gious beliefs. While Christianity

is accepted there, the older reli-

gions of Buddhism and Shinto

are also very prevalent.

Shinto (“way of the gods”) is

the indigenous religion of Japan

which focuses on ritual practises

which establish a connection

between the past and the

present. One of the most com-

mon sights and a fascinations

to me were the countless Torii

gates which were the entrances

to the Shinto shrines. These

ranged in size from two meters

to seemingly indescribably

A torii gate to a shinto shrine in Japan

RReelliiggiioonn

iinn

CCuullttuurree


8 Parrot Time | Issue #10 | July / August 2014

heights and could be very basic

in design or highly ornate.

The Shinto shrines them-

selves are not quite as we might,

in western culture, believe them

to be. They could be used for

worship, but their primary pur-

pose was normally to house sac-

red objects.

At the age of 12, I was not

caught up in any kind or reli-

gious ideas, but I loved these

gates and shrines because they

were a beautiful part of the cul-

ture. They showed to me a

peacefulness of how the Japan-

ese people embraced their tradi-

tions. They play an important

part of the culture, even to those

not involved in the religion.

Another structure that we

found everywhere, sometimes in

beautiful gardens of bustling cit-

ies and sometimes in mountain

forests, were the Buddhist pago-

das. These are wooden struc-

tures with multiple levels, each

having a curved roof. They are

places of worship, but are also

visited by many tourists, includ-

ing us, for their cultural and his-

torical relevance. Many have

fountains or pools with flowing

water outside to allow visitors to

drink and wash themselves, a

ritual of cleansing. I loved these,

along with the pools of colourful

Koi fish that seemed to be every-

where.

Perhaps the most important

revelation to me that has stuck

with me all my life is that the Ja-

panese culture and people had

their religion as part of their cul-

ture. They didn’t seem to have

them set apart, only to pay at-

tention to one on a fixed

timetable. At the same time, I

never felt that the people were

overtly religious; it all just

seemed to be united, religion

and culture.

ItalyMy next major exposure to an-

other culture was my first visit

to Italy when I was 17. I was vis-

iting an Italian exchange student

whom I had befriended when he

came to my school the year be-

fore. It was my first time in

Europe as well as my first time

outside the country without my

family. For two glorious weeks,

my friend Lucio and I explored

Italy, particularly Rome,

Florence, Siena, Pisa and

Venice.

We spent most of a week in

Florence alone, during which

time we visited many of the large

ornate churches that seemed to

be on every other street. The

boarding house we were staying

in itself was across from the Ba-

silica of Santa Maria Novella.

Inside, the walls were often covered in artistic frescos, combining both the artisticand religious aspects of the various time periods.

A buddhist shrine in Kyoto, Japan

The "Great Buddha" at Kōtoku-in,a Buddhist temple in the city ofKamakura in KanagawaPrefecture, Japan

A Feng Shui stone lanternin a Japanese garden

The Last Judgement painted byMichelangelo on the wall of theSistene Chapel



The various chiese (“churches”)

and duomi (“cathedrals”) were of

a kind I had never seen before.

These were huge ornate stone

buildings, very old and very

much part of the cultural herit-

age. Inside, the walls were often

covered in artistic frescos, com-

bining both the artistic and reli-

gious aspects of the various time

periods. In fact, when we talk

about great works of art in Italy,

we mention Michaelangelo’s

work on the Sistine Chapel or

his famous statue of David, with

David being the hero of a Biblic-

al story. Without the religious

connection, these works would

not exist.

Some of the most popular

tourist attractions in Italy are

actually religious based. For ex-

ample, the famous “leaning

tower” of Pisa is the bell tower

for the adjacent baptistery and

cemetery. The baptistery is an

example of the transition

between the Romanesque style

to the Gothic style of architec-

ture, with the lower part being in

the first style and the upper part

in the second. The Camposanto

Monumentale (“monumental

cemetery”) houses not just bod-

ies but also Roman and

Etruscan sculptures and urns

along with enormous frescos,

mostly depicting religious

themes.

The Roman Colosseum, per-

haps the greatest historical

landmark in Italy, has its own

religious heritage. It was first

built using money from the raid-

ing of the Second Temple in the

Siege of Jerusalem. A popular

story about the Colosseum is

that Christians were sacrificed

there when that new religious

was being born, but how com-

mon and extensive that really

was is unknown. During medi-

eval times, a small church was

added to the structure and the

arena was converted into a

cemetery.

Some of the world’s greatest

cultural treasures are actually

religion based. The Great Pyr-

amids of Egypt were built as

tombs for the ruling Pharaohs.

The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum

in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India,

built by Mughal emperor Shah

The Bell Tower and Baptistery of Pisa, Italy

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, onthe ceiling of the Sistene Chapel



Jahan for of his third wife,

Mumtaz Mahal. The stone circles

of Stonehenge and similar sites

are believed to have been built

as burial grounds and places of

worship. The estate of Machu

Pikchu in the mountains of Peru

is similarly believed to be of reli-

gious significance.

Tower of BabelPerhaps the most relevant his-

torical and cultural building to

language learners is the great

Tower of Babel of Babylon. Ac-

cording to legend, there was a

time when everyone on Earth

spoke the same language. Many

people settled in the land of

Shinar and wanted to show how

great they were, so they built a

great city and a very tall tower.

God saw this and was concerned

that if everyone was united and

had a single language, nothing

would be out of their reach, in-

cluding him. And so, he des-

troyed their tower and confused

their speech, making them

speak in many languages, thus

making them unable to ever

work completely as one again.

The ruins of the city can be

found today in Hillah, Babil Gov-

ernorate, Iraq.

Holidays and Holy DaysBeyond just the buildings and

works of art that were directly or

indirectly driven by religious

ideas, a great many celebrations

around the world have their

roots, if not there entire pur-

pose, in religious practices. Car-

nival, the huge party held every

year in several countries, is held

as the last time for the con-

sumption of rich food and drink

before the forty days of Lent is

begun, in which those things are

forbidden. The Mexican Day of

the Dead is celebration of the

deceased and coincides with the

American Halloween and the

Catholic All Saints Day. The an-

nual ritual of giving your loved

ones romantic gifts is attributed

to the Christian Saint Valentine.

The colourful Indian Holi celeb-

ration is based upon the story of

the boy Prahlad and his devotion

to his god, Lord Vishnu. The Inti

Rayma of South America is cel-

ebration of the Inca sun god.

The Japanese Tanabata festival

celebrates not only the legend of

star-crossed lovers but also the

practise of praying for skills by

tying strips of paper to special

trees. The Esala Perahera of Sri

Lanka is a celebration of both

Buddha (or, more specifically,

his tooth) and certain Hindu

gods. The list goes on and on.

The term “holiday” itself

comes from Old English halig-

dæg for “holy day, Sabbath”.

No matter what your views

on religion are, we cannot ignore

its importance to culture, both

historical and modern. It plays a

part in our architecture, our art,

our legends and our celebra-

tions. PT

Construction of the Tower of Babel by Lucas van Valckenborch, 1594, Louvre Museum

Carnival celebration on the island ofTenerife in the Canary Islands

Book Look

15 Parrot Time | Issue #6 | May / June 2014

Languages in Peril - Decline of the Gallo-Italics


Languages in Peril

DDeecclliinnee ooff tthheeGGaalllloo--IIttaalliiccss

he Gallo-Italic languages make up the

majority of northern Italian languages.

They are Emilian-Romagnolo, Ligurian,

Lombard, and Piedmontese. Sadly, they are

all endangered, with the population of their

speakers in decline.

Emiliano-RomagnoloEmiliano-Romagnolo is a minority Italian lan-

guage, structurally different from standard

Italian, and is not descended from Italian. It is

spoken by roughly 2 million people, with most

of those being in Italy, where it is used mainly

in the northwestern region. It is also referred

to as Emilian, Emiliano, or Sammarinese.

There are two major dialects, Emilian and

Romagnol, which can further be broken into

the variants of Western Emiliano, Central

Emiliano, Eastern Emiliano, Northern Ro-

magnolo, Southern Romagnolo, Mantovano,

Vogherese-Pavese, and Lunigiano.

The history of the language goes back to

pre-Roman days, when the region had been

part of the Etruscan territory. Around 400

BC, the region was invaded by the Gauls

(Celts) , a tribe from western Europe, which

crossed the Alps and settled in the Etruscan

territory of what is now northern Italy. Over

the centuries, the Gauls and Romans often

clashed before the Romans finally defeated

the Gauls in that region in 194 BC. After that,

the languages of the tribes mixed with the

Latin and eventually evolved alongside Italian,

making the languages related to, but not des-

cended from, one another.

After the fall of the Roman empire, the

various kingdoms of the region eventually

formed into the Italian Kingdom, and the

Emilia-Romagna became part of it around

1860. The language and culture began to de-

cline after that due to emigration.

Between 1876 and 1976, approximately

1 .2 million people left Emilia-Romagna and

moved to other countries, where they mixed

with those populations. By 2008, there were

around 120 thousand people from this region

living outside of Italy in places like Argentina,

Brazil, France, the United Kingdom and

Switzerland.

LigurianThe next Gallo-Italic language is Ligurian,

which has around 500,000 speakers. It is

mainly spoken in the northern Italy region of

Liguria, of which Genoa is the capital. It is

also referred to as Genovese.

The Ligurians once covered a far greater

Ligurian village, 20 km inland of SanRemo on the Italian Riviera



area than modem day Liguria,

perhaps even encompassing as

far west as the Greek colony of

Masslia (modern day Marseille) .

The Ligurians were divided

between Carthage and Rome

during the first Punic Wars, and

it was under Caesar Augustus

that Liguria was first designated

as an official region of Italy.

Roads and ports helped build up

the region with communication

and trade.

During the Middle Ages, Lig-

uria was dominated by several

groups, including the Byz-

antines, the Lombards, and the

Franks as well as being invaded

by Saracen and Norman raiders.

It was finally split into the three

marches (militarised border re-

gions used as defence against a

rival power), of Obertenga,

Aleramica, and Arduinica, which

were then split further into fees

(feudal landholdings) and their

strength was greatly weakened.

The primary Ligurian towns be-

came city-states and fell under

Genoa’s rule.

This Republic of Genoa

gained huge political and com-

mercial success, becoming one

of the most powerful maritime

republics of the Mediterranean

between the 12th and 14th cen-

turies, but internal factions fell

into political conflict and the

control of the republic went to

the Visconti family of Milan,

where it remained until 1435.

The Republic gained stability

when admiral Andrea Doria be-

came the ally of the powerful

king of Spain in 1528 and

brought Genoa under the control

of the aristocratic government.

However, the stability did not

last, for King Louis XIV attacked

Genoa in 1684 as an act of re-

taliation for its support of Spain.

Genoa surrendered and apolo-

gized, but this attack helped so-

lidify a growing view that France

was too brutal and arrogant.Young people on bicycles gather on the Piazza Maggiore of Bologna, the capital of the Emilia-

Romagna Region in Italy



After that, many states began to

abandon their alliances with

France, which then became

more isolated from the rest of

Europe.

In 1796, French general Na-

poleon Bonaparte led an army to

invade Italy, and through that,

France gained control of most of

northern Italy. He transformed

the Republic of Genoa into the

Ligurian Republic, modelled

after the French Republic. It was

then annexed into the French

Empire in 1805.

In 1815, the Congress of Vi-

enna decided that Liguria

should be annexed to the King-

dom of Sardinia. In 1821 , a

failed uprising in Genoa against

the House of Savoy, the then

ruling family of the region at the

time, sparked national senti-

ment which eventually led to the

unification of Italy, transforming

the Kingdom of Sardinia into the

Kingdom of Italy in 1861 .

Today, Liguria is a popular

tourist region because of its is

popular with tourists for its

beaches, towns, and cuisine, but

the Ligurian language is at risk

of becoming extinct because of

the dominance of Italian. There

are a few groups dedicated to

trying to preserve it, like the As-

sociazione Culturale O Castello in

Chiavari which offers Ligurian

language courses. There are also

a number of notable historical

native speakers, such as the

famous general Giuseppe

Garibaldi, the explorer Chris-

topher Columbus, and Italian

journalist and author Italo

Calvino.

LombardAnother Gallo-Italic language is

Lombard. It is spoken in the

same part of northern Italy, in a

region called Lombardy as well

as some parts of Piedmont and

southern Switzerland. It has two

dialects, Western and Eastern,

which are usually mutually com-

prehensible. It is also structur-

ally different from Italian and is

not a descendent or dialect of

Italian. As of 2007, it had

roughly 2.9 million native speak-

ers, making it the strongest of

the four languages in this art-

icle, but it is still considered en-

dangered.

The Lombardy area has

evidence of settlements going

back to the 2nd millennium BC,

with rock drawings, ceramics,

axes and carved stones being

found there. Over the centuries,

different people and tribes in-

habited the region. One of them

was the Etruscans who founded

the city of Mantua there. Gallic

tribes invaded the area around

5th century BC and ruled there

for many years, expanding their

territory.

The Romans were also ex-

panding, however, and overtook

them, making the region a Ro-

man province named Gallia Cis-

alpina in 194 BC. The Roman

culture and Latin language

overwhelmed the residents. The

area became very developed with

better roads and trade, the same

as Liguria.

After the fall of the Roman

empire, Lombardy fell under

Oneglia, a town in northern Italy on the Ligurian coast

Piazza di Ferrari, Genoa, Liguria



more invasions from various

tribes, the last one being from

the Germanic Lombard tribes,

who ruled most of the Italian re-

gion for roughly 200 years,

between 600 and 800 AD. The

tribe had their own language,

Lombardic, which is now extinct

and not related to Lombard. The

region did take its name from

the tribe, though.

In 774, Lombard rule came

to an end when the Frankish

king Charlemagne conquered

them and annexed this Kingdom

ofthe Lombards, which was

mostly northern and central

Italy, to his empire. While the

centuries saw more fighting of

control for the Italian peninsula,

it finally became a unified coun-

try, with Lombardy part of it.

Lombard has never been an

official language and is not cur-

rently taught in schools, but

some people are working to have

it introduced into primary

schools. It is spoken primarily

by older people which contrib-

utes to its decline, since the

younger generation isn’t learning

it, choosing instead to use Itali-

an. There has been an attempt

at a revival in the last few years,

using Lombard as a way to ex-

press local identity and distance

people from the mainstream

Italian culture, but it is unclear

whether this will help or hurt its

effort to survive.

PiedmontesePiedmontese is spoken by

around 1 .6 million people in

Piedmont, located in the northw-

est part of Italy, adjacent to Lig-

uria and Lombardy. Like the

others, it is an independent lan-

guage of Italian, not a dialect.

Piedmont was actually in-

habited for many years by Celt-

ic-Ligurian tribes, but became

part of the Roman Empire in 220

BC. After that empire fell, it was

invaded many times by more

tribes, such as the Goths, Bur-

undians, Byzantines, Lombards,

and Franks. It became part of

the Holy Roman Empire in the

10th century, then in 1046 it be-

came part of the Savoy family

territories.

In 1720, the Duke of Savoy,

Victor Amadeus II, became King

of Sardinia, and in 1792, Pied-

mont and Sardinia joined the

First Coalition against the

French First Republic, which

was also founded the same year.

The French First Republic was

born out of the French Revolu-

tion and was meant to establish

a new government. The First Co-

alition was an attempt by several

European monarchies to control

the expansion of France. They

failed, however, being beaten in

1796 by Napoleon, and Pied-

mont was annexed by France in

Via Zuavi in Melegnano, a town inMilan, Lombardy, Italy

Sunrise at Bergamo old town, Lombardy, Italy

Victor Amadeus II, duke of Savoy, King ofSicily and King of Sardinia



1801 . The Congress of Vienna

restored the Kingdom of Sardinia

in 1815.

Piedmontese became recog-

nized as Piedmont’s regional lan-

guage by its own regional

parliament, but the Italian gov-

ernment did not recognize it. It

is supposed to be taught in

schools, but that is only happen-

ing on a limited scale. Pied-

montese courses and

publications for teaching have

been developed, but the usage of

the language has declined very

rapidly. It is unsure exactly how

many know it, since many can

understand it but not speak it

natively.

ConclusionAll of these languages are dying

out, not because of any overall

oppression but simply because

they cannot compete with the

national language of Italian.

They are likely to be completely

gone within the next two genera-

tions if something drastic isn’t

done to revive them. With that

requiring the younger generation

to start learning them along with

the dominant Italian, it seems to

be an impossible task. PT

Bra, a town and comune in the northwest Italian region of Piedmont

Special Feature - Language Learning and Translation


ave you ever been told by a languageteacher that you should avoid translatingat all costs and try to understand and

think in the native language all the time? Ihave, but it does not work for me, at least notin the early stages. As a matter of fact, Ibelieve that most teachers who refusedtranslating actually didn’t know their motherlanguage enough to trace pertinent,contextual parallels between sentences in thetarget and the mother language. I’m on theside of those who think that translatingcoherently is an ultimate skills and proveshow high one’s level is.

In my experience, I noticed thattranslating can be important for learners inorder to make a safe, solid journey throughthe beginner and intermediate stages. Is it acrutch? Yes, it is a crutch, or a training wheelas you may prefer. Nevertheless, it does haveits importance. As different as a language maybe from your native language, it’s still acommunication tool for human beings. So,believe me, you will find millions more ofordinary, daily life situations that can betranslated back and from in your targetlanguage than you will find those unique,exotic untranslatable words that are listed sooften in language trivia stories.

Just like you may use training wheels indifferent ways - two at once, then only one,then none - you also have different usagesand patterns of translating for your languagestudies. The training wheels are there whileturn a learned behaviour - standing on abicycle - into an automated task. So are thetranslations during the language process. Youmake use of them and you check them all thetime, then once in a while, and then you don’tneed them any more, at least not for that

specific context where you already gotspontaneous answers within your studiedlanguage.

I start with two training wheels, and I tendto use textbooks that provide me with bothtraining wheels. They are: a literal translation,which helps me understand how a sentence isformed in the target language, which wordorder they use and how their morphologydiffer from the one I’m used to; and what I liketo call a ’proper’ translation, which is as closeto what a professional translator would do ifpeople were only interested in reading thebook or watching the film, not inunderstanding how the target languageworks.

The need for two types of translations, aliteral and an accurate one, may seem lessevident for closer languages, like the Romanceor the Scandinavian languages, but try tolearn a non-Indo European language and youwill see how they come in handy. Notsurprisingly, proving a literal then anaccurate translation is the standard notationfor linguists that describe the features of alanguage in paper. How does this work, afterall?

Let’s pick the example of Estonian, aFinno-Ugric language. In the case of Estonian,but also in the case of Indo-Europeanlanguages such as Russian, possession isordinarily not expressed by a verb, but bydeclining, changing the possessor to a specificcase. So, if you want to say “I have a book” inEstonian, that would be something like:

Mul on raamat.

“Mul’ is the pronoun “ma” (=I) in theadessive case, so it sort of means ’on me’.

LLaanngguuaaggee LLeeaarrnniinngg

aanndd TTrraannssllaattiioonn

Special Feature - Language Learning and Translation


“On” is the verb ’to be’, 3rd person = is.Raamat is the dictionary form for the noun’book’ (the so-called nominative case) . Now,how can this explanation be expressed in amore concise and practical way, with the helpof translations? See below:

Mul on raamat.on-me is bookI have a book.

Just from these sentences I can learn twothings: a) Possession in Estonian is expressedthrough a noun case, not through a verb. b)Estonian has no indefinite articles (andprobably no articles at all) . All thisinformation came from providing a literal andan accurate translation one after another.When you are an experienced languagelearner, this saves a lot of time: if I werestudying now, I wouldn’t need the paragraphsbelow to understand this: I’d have learned allthe same just from checking the literal and

the accurate translation. Even if you’re juststarting into the language learning business,though, this usage of translations helps saveup a lot of time and make the process moreintuitive.

I tend to make use of the literaltranslation while I’m still getting used to thegrammar of the language. I gradually get ridof it, using it mostly for some obscure idioms.The more I advance, the more I value havingaccurate translations that help meunderstand more precisely what the speakermeant to say. These translations areimportant at intermediate stages. The goodnews is that, unlike the literal translations,you do not have to rely on a specific textbookwith a specific format to provide them. Youmay use them until you are comfortableenough to barely look up one or two wordsnow and then. But that’s a subject for a laterarticle. PT

TThhee ssttrreeeettss ooff PPaarrlleerreemmoo

aarree nnaammeedd aafftteerr ffaammoouuss

wwrriitteerrss ffoorr tthhee llaanngguuaaggee ooff

eeaacchh qquuaarrtteerr.. TThhiiss iiss wwhheerree

wwee ttaakkee aa qquuiicckk llooookk aatt wwhhyy

tthheeyy aarree ffaammoouuss..

WWoorrdd oonn tthhee SSttrreeeettss

IIttaalliiaann GGrreeaattss

Word on the Streets - Italian Greats


Durante degli Alighieriwas not only a majorItalian poet of the MiddleAges but also one of themost recognized names inItalian literature. He wasthe author of “The DivineComedy” which is

considered to be the greatest literary work inthe Italian language as well as a worldmasterpiece.

Dante, as he became to be called, was born inFlorence, Italy. The actual date of his birth isunknown, but he is believed to have beenborn in 1265. His mother died before he wasten years old, and his father remarried, givinghim a half-brother, Francesco, and a half-sister, Tana, from that union. Dante himselfwas promised in marriage to Gemma diManetto Donati, who was the daughter of thepowerful Donati family, when he was only 12.He had fallen in love with another girl,Beatrice Portinari, without even talking toher, at the age of nine, but still had to marryGemma. It is doubtful he even ever spokemuch with Beatrice, instead having a more“courtly” form of love. During his life, he wroteseveral sonnets to Beatrice, but for Gemma,he wrote none. He eventually had fourchildren by Gemma - Jacopo, Antonia,Giovanni and Pietro - although others claimedto be his.

Little is actually known about Dante’seducation, but he probably either attended aschool that was part of a church or studied athome. One of the things he studied is Tuscanpoetry and he developed an interest in theclassical Latin poets like Ovid, Cicero, andVirgil. When he was 18, he met other scholarslike Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Cino daPistoia and Brunetto Latini, the last of theseof whom would become Dante’s guardianwhen his father died. Together, they becamethe leaders of the Dolce Stil Novo (“sweet newstyle”) , which is what the literary movement oftheir time came to be called.

Beatrice died unexpectedly in 1290 and fiveyears later, Dante published Vita Nuova (“TheNew Life”) , which is about his love for her. He

then started to become more involved inphilosophy and politics.

In Italy, there were two rival political parties,the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, whichsupported the papal party and the HolyRoman emperors respectively, and this rivalrycame to affect most Florentines of the time.Dante’s family had loyalties to the Guelphs,and he fought in the battle of Campaldino in1289. He then served as an escort to CharlesMartel of Anjou, the eldest son of king CharlesII of Naples, in 1924. He held various otherposts, such as pharmacist (a law issued in1295 required all nobles who aspired topublic office had to be enrolled in one of theCorporazioni delle Arti e dei Mestieri[“Corporations of the Arts and Crafts”] ) .

After defeating the Ghibellines, the Guelphssplit into two factions: the White Guelphs,who wanted more freedom from Rome and towhom Dante was a part of, and the BlackGuelphs, who supported the Pope. After a fewmore years of fighting, the Black Guelphstook control. Dante was punished for hisinvolvement and exiled for two years to Rome,as well as being forced to pay a large fine in1302. When he refused to pay, the exilebecame permanent, and he even faced thethreat of death if he attempted to return toFlorence.

This was probably the best thing to happen tohis career as a writer, as he started travellingand writing. It was during this time that hedeveloped his great work, The Divine Comedy,which would reflect much of what he feltabout his life. It describes his own journeythrough Inferno (Hell) , Purgatorio (Purgatory),and Paradiso (Paradise) and his guides are hisgreat loves, first being the Roman poet Virgiland then Beatrice. So great was this workthat it is still considered a major work ofliterature today, over 700 years later.

In 1304, he began his Latin treatise (a formaland systematic written discourse) De VulgariEloquentia (“The Eloquent Vernacular”) ,through which he put forth his ideas forItalian. It became very influential, despiteremaining unfinished.

Dante Alighieri1 265 - 1 321

Corso Dante



Bibliography• 1280 Detto D'Amore• 1295 La Vita Nuova• 1305 De Vulgari Eloquentia• 1307 The Convivio• 1320 Egloge• 1321 La Commedia• Letter to Can Grande• Letter to the Florentines

When Florence was forced by the militaryofficer controlling the town to grant amnestyto all those in exile in 135, Dante refused toreturn, for it required public penance as wellas paying a large fine. In 1318, Prince GuidoNovello da Polenta invited Dante to Ravenna,the capital city of the Province of Ravenna inthe Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and heaccepted. It was during a return to Ravennafrom a trip that he died in 1321 at the age of56. He was buried there at the Church of SanPier Maggiore and a tomb was erected for himin 1483 by Bernardo Bembo, praetor ofVenice.



Via Calvino

I talo Calvino1 5 October 1 923 – 1 9 September 1 985

Italo Calvino was anItalian journalist andwriter of short stories andnovels. He was born inSantiago de Las Vegas,Cuba, in 1923, to Italianparents who returned toItaly two years later. They

settled in San Remo on the Ligurian coast andCalvino’s father started teaching at theUniversity of Turin. Calvino attendedpreparatory school before entering that sameuniversity in 1941 . While there, he studiedAgriculture Faculty to please his parents, buthe was also reading anti-Fascist works byEugenio Montale, Cesare Pavese, ElioVittorini, Johan Huizinga, and Pisacane. Healso studied the physics works of WernerHeisenberg, Max Planck, and Albert Einstein.

In 1943, Calvino transferred to the Universityof Florence and continued his studies. Duringthat year, the Allied Forces invaded Italy, thedictator Benito Mussolini was removed frompower, and King Victor Emmanuel III had himarrested. He was rescued when the Germansinvaded Liguria and set up him in a puppetRepublic there. Calvino dropped out andjoined the Italian resistance army, fighting theGermans and Italian fascists until they werefinally defeated in 1945.

He went back to the university in 1945 whenthe war ended. However, he did not continuestudying science and entered the Faculty ofLetters instead. This is when he startedwriting, beginning on a collection of storiesbased around his war experiences. Theseeventually formed his novel Il sentiero dei nididi ragno (“The Path to the Nest of Spiders”) ,which was published in 1947. He wasencouraged by his friend to write anothernovel, and he joined their publishing house,Enaudi.

Calvino was prolific during the 1950s,publishing a number of works on varioussubjects, including stories which mixedcomedy and fantasy, such as Il viscontedimezzato (“The Cloven Viscount”, 1952), Ilbarone rampante (“The Baron in the Trees”,1957), and Il cavaliere inesistente (“The

Nonexistent Knight”, 1959). His collection of200 authentic folktales, taken from all regionsof Italy and published as Fiabe Italiane(“Italian Folktales”) in 1956, brought him ahuge amount international recognition andestablished him as a significant literaryfigure.

After moving to Paris in the early 1960s,Calvino published La giornata d’unoscrutatore (“The Watcher”) in 1963. Hemarried an Argentinian woman, Esther“Chichita” Singer, who had been working foryears as a translator for UNESCO, in 1964.He continued publishing many books,including La nuvola di smog (“Smog”, 1965),Le cosmicomiche (“Cosmicomics”, 1965), and Ilcastello dei destini incrociati (“The Castle ofCrossed Destinies”, 1969). During this time,Chichita gave birth to their only child, adaughter named Giovanna, in 1965.

Calvino returned with his family to Rome in1980, settling in a country house at PinettaRoccamare. He was given an honorarymembership of the American Academy andInstitute of Arts and Letters in the UnitedStates in 1975. Italo Calvino died onSeptember 19, 1985, from a cerebralhemorrhage at the age of 61 .

Italo Calvino was one of Italy’s mostcelebrated writers, and during his lifetime, heproduced over 40 works, including a fewlibretti (text intended for use in a musicalwork such as operas) . His stories are knownfor their blend of fantasy and comedy todepict modern life.



Fiction• 1947 Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno (The Path to the Nest ofSpiders)• 1952 Il visconte dimezzato (The Cloven Viscount)• 1952 La formica argentina (The Argentine Ant)• 1956 Fiabe Italiane (Italian Folktales)• 1957 Il barone rampante (The Baron in the Trees)• 1957 La speculazione edilizia (A Plunge into Real Estate)• 1959 Il cavaliere inesistente (The Nonexistent Knight)• 1963 La giornata d'uno scrutatore (The Watcher)• 1963 Marcovaldo ovvero le stagioni in città (Marcovaldo orthe Seasons in the City)• 1965 La nuvola di smog (Smog)• 1965 Le cosmicomiche (Cosmicomics)• 1967 Ti con zero (t zero)• 1969 Il castello dei destini incrociati (The Castle of CrossedDestinies)• 1970 Gli amori difficili (Difficult Loves)• 1972 Le città invisibili (Invisible Cities)• 1979 Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore (If on a winter'snight a traveler)• 1983 Palomar (Mr. Palomar)

Fiction collections• 1949 Ultimo viene il corvo (The Crow Comes Last)• 1960 I nostri antenati (Our Ancestors)• 1986 Sotto il sole giaguaro (Under the Jaguar Sun)• 1993 Prima che tu dica 'Pronto' (Numbers in the Dark andOther Stories)• 1997 Tutte le cosmicomiche (The Complete Cosmicomics)

Essays and other writings• 1970 Orlando Furioso di Ludovico Ariosto (OrlandoFurioso by Ludovico Ariosto)• 1974 Autobiografia di uno spettatore (Autobiography of aSpectator)• 1980 Una pietra sopra: Discorsi di letteratura e società (TheUses of Literature)• 1983 Racconti fantastici dell'ottocento (Fantastic Tales)• 1983 Science et métaphore chez Galilée (Science andMetaphor in Galileo Galilei)• 1984 Collezione di sabbia (Collection of Sand)• 1988 Lezioni americane: Sei proposte per il prossimomillennio (Six Memos for the Next Millennium)• 1988 Sulla fiaba (On the Fairy Tale)• 1991 I libri degli altri. Lettere 1947–1981 (The Books ofOthers)• 1991 Perché leggere i classici (Why Read the Classics?)

Autobiographical works• 1954 L'entrata in guerra (Into the War)• 1990 La strada di San Giovanni (The Road to San Giovanni)• 1994 Eremita a Parigi. Pagine autobiografiche (Hermit inParis)• 1995 Album Calvino

Libretti• 1956 La panchina. Opera in un atto (The Bench: One-ActOpera)• 1984 Un re in ascolto (A King Listens)

Partial l ist of works by Italo Calvino

Book Look

Parrot Time | Issue #9 | May / June 2014 29

I have several books on languages in general.

Some are very technical, some are almost too

casual, and some are more showy than accurate.

This book falls into none of these categories.

The late Mario Pei was born in Italy, but moved to

the United States with his family at a young age.

He wrote this book while serving as Professor of

Romance Philology at Columbia University. At that

time, he was capable of speaking thirty languages,

as well as being acquainted with the sentence

structures of more than 100 other languages. His

knowledge comes through in his writings.

The Story of Language covers a lot of diverse

grounds in an excellent mixture of scholarly

writing with layman clarity. It's more serious then

McWhorter's "The Power of Babel", but easier to

comprehend then Chomsky's dissertations.

The chapters cover different aspects of language.

In the first chapter, "The History of Language",

theories of language origins, dialects, place names,

and writing are discussed. "The Constituent

Elements of Language" covers more of structure,

including sounds, semantics, slang, and

arrangements of words.

"The Social Function of

Language" covers how

languages affect our

daily lives in areas such

as religion, family,

literature, and

superstition. "The

Modern Spoken Tongue"

delves more directly into

comparisons of

languages. "Problems of

Language Learning" talks about "easy" and

"difficult" languages, as well as methods of

acquiring them. "An International Language"

discusses translation issues and language

dominance.

A few different versions of this book exist, both in

hardcover and paperback. I have two paperback

copies, one being the revised and updated edition

of the other. The book is out of print, but can still

be purchased used from many places. If you can

get your hands on a copy, I encourage you to read

it from cover to cover. You definitely won't be

disappointed. PT

The Story of Language by Mario Pei

Language: English

I tem Rating:

ISBN-1 0: 0452008700 ISBN-1 3: 978-0452008700

BBooookk LLooookk

*****

Once the travel bug

bites there is no

known antidote, and

I know that I shall

be happily infected

until the end of my

life.

- Michael Palin

At the Cinema - Xingu


he film Xingu is the story about

how the Villas-Bôas brothers,

Claudio, Leonardo and Orlando,

created the first Indian park in Brazil

to protect the indigenous tribes from

the encroaching Brazilian government.

It is based upon the true story, even

using actual footage from the events

at the end of the film.

The film starts with Claudio and

Leonardo dressing like workers and

signing on to an expedition into the

Amazon rainforest. The mission is to

open up the jungle for roadways, de-

velopment and “taking control”. The

voice-over narration by Claudio says

they were giving up their jobs to find

the freedom of the wild. Once signed

on, they send word to their brother

Orlando, who is still working in an of-

fice to come join them, which he does

happily, wanting to get away from the

daily drudgery of his job. With the

small team, they soon run into a tribe

of Indians, the Xavante, who have

probably never seen a white man be-

fore. At first the brothers and the team

try to avoid them, but finally, Orlando

and Claudio approach a group of them

on a beach and through trading a few

items, manage to earn the trust of the

chief and then are taken to see the en-

tire tribe.

Within a year, the tribe and ex-

pedition are good friends, with the

men living among them while the Indi-

ans help them build a landing strip. A

government plane lands, marking a

great success, for they have made con-

tact and worked with the Indians

without any loss of life. That changes,

however, when the Indians start get-

ting sick. They have contracted the flu

from the white men, and before it can

be stopped, half of the village is wiped

out, including the chief. This turn of

events has a huge impact on the

brothers, who realise that they are the

ones that have caused the deaths by

making contact. They know that inev-

itably, the government will move in to

take over the land, so they decide that

they must be “both the poison and the

antidote”. They set out to inoculate

the tribe against further disease,

bringing in a doctor and staff.

They want to do more than that,

however, and start talking about hav-

ing a place for the Indian tribes to live,

separate from and protected against

the white man invasion. They get the

chance for this when the government

asks them to establish a military base

in the jungle. They agree, but only on

the condition that the Indians get

their own land: a Xingu Park, named

because of the Xingu river they are on.

In typical government fashion,

once the base is completed, rather

than providing the Indians with their

own land, they divide it up and start

AAtt tthhee CCiinneemmaa

XXiinngguu

Xingu1 02 minAdventure / Biography /Drama1 4 March 201 4 (USA)

Country: Brazil

Language: Portuguese /Tupi

“Their main viewis that the Indiansshould be able toassimilate intomoderncivilization attheir own pace,not ours.

The brothers, on alert, when they are firstconfronted by the Xavante in the jungle



handing it out to ranchers. Infuriated by the be-

trayal, Claudio and Orlando embark on a risky

strategy. Claudio starts having the Indians attack

some of the new ranches being built while Orlando

returns home to stir up sentiment for the Indians

in the media. They manage to finally push the gov-

ernment into giving them the area they want, and

they start bringing in other tribes that are outside

of the area. By this time, Leonardo has returned to

the mainland with his Indian wife and child, hav-

ing broken Orlando’s command to not get involved

with the Indians’ women.

The film does a fantastic job of presenting the

hardships that both sides, the brothers and the

Indians, endure as they attempt to work together

and understand each other. It is also inevitably

sad, because it is a story that has been repeated

so many times throughout history, although this

one is done a bit more peacefully. Whenever “civil-

ized” men come into contact with indigenous

people, the results are almost always devastating

to the tribes, who are either killed by fighting, dis-

ease, or both. The brothers are very aware of this

pattern, which is why they work so hard to make it

a peaceful meeting, but even then, they know that

they have quickened the end of these people. Their

main view is that the Indians should be able to as-

similate into modern civilization at their own pace,

not ours.

There was something more profound that I

realized while watching this. As we see the Indians

living their lives slowly losing their culture (some

already start wearing modern clothes and learning

to ride in airplanes), there is the truth that cul-

tures are always being lost; we simply don’t notice

because it is a gradual change. It isn’t just inva-

sions or the rise and fall of empires; it is the “pro-

gress” as what we once did is left behind for the

new. The world that exists now is very different

from the way it was one hundred years ago, and

that world was very different from the hundred

years before that. We can take any two time peri-

ods and compare them and see what was lost and

what was created. Even in the short term, the

world around me is very different compared to

when I was a child, and that world was very differ-

ent from the world of my parents’ childhood. There

is no way to truly save any culture, because it is

always changing.

The same is true of languages. Even if you

look at a modern language like Italian, it is differ-

ent now compared to what it was a few hundred

years ago, as words change in meaning or become

lost altogether while new ones are adopted or cre-

ated. In English, we don’t speak the way they did

in Shakespeare’s time.

There were a few things I wish the film was

clearer about. The start of the film seems to be

unsure as to the purpose of the brothers. At first,

it shows them as sneaking onto an expedition, and

Claudio is talking about freedom being the motiv-

ation. But once they are in the wild, they seem to

take control of the group, rather than being the

normal peasants they passed themselves off as. So

who was supposed to be leading the group? It was

also a bit unclear exactly what Leonardo had done

wrong. He did get a native woman pregnant, and

the media found out and made a big deal out of it,

but I don’t know why that would force him to leave

the mission. Indeed, it seems to me it would be

worse to return to society with an Indian wife and

child rather than living in the tribe like they

already were.

The Xavante, dancing

Indians and brothers watching an airplane approach for thefirst time

The brothers, in one of their many discussions over what is best forthe tribes



The film is listed as being in Portuguese and

Tupi, for those wanting the language aspect. I as-

sume the Indians are speaking Tupi, but Tupi is

listed as being extinct while there are other Tupian

languages, under various names. The Xavante

people, the first the brothers make contact with,

speak the Xavante language, which isn’t even in

the same language family as Tupian. I am still

hopeful that someone will be able to clarify what

was being spoken in the film and why.

There is some truly beautiful cinematography

going on, with most of the story being filmed in the

actual Xingu Park, which is still thriving today.

The film is unrated, being more of a documentary

than fiction, but there is some violence, strong

language, and partial nudity (Indian women being

topless) .

I would highly recommend Xingu to anyone

interested in the tragedies of indigenous people, as

I have become through my own studies into en-

dangered languages. PT

Claudio, dancing during the celebration over the creation of the parkOrlando, also dancing, with Marina, one of the assistants

Each book contains 360puzzles in these categories:

Airport, Animals, Around the

House, Birds, Clothing, Family,

Food, Fruit, Hotel, Parts of the

Body, Restaurant, Vegetables

Find all the words in thepuzzles and increase your

vocabulary!

Puzzle books available inseveral languages, includingFrench, Spanish, German

and Italian.

Parleremo Ebook series presents

Word search puzzles

12 categories

5 levels

6 puzzles per level

360 puzzles

HOURS of learning fun!


Celebrations - Hangul Day

ormally, celebrations and

holidays are based around

religious events or seasonal

occurrences. There is one that is

the celebration of a new writing

system for a language. It is

Hangul Day, celebrated in the

fall by both North and South

Korea.

HistoryKorean has not always been

written by the average citizen.

Once, it was rarely written at all.

When it was written, it was done

so using the classical Chinese

alphabet, called Hanja. This was

such a complex writing system,

having literally thousands of

characters, that only a few

people, mainly the members of

the aristocratic families, had the

time (it took a few years to mem-

orize completely) and teachers to

properly learn it. That also

meant they were the only ones

who were literate.

That changed in the 15th

century. King Sejong ( )

was the fourth king of the Cho-

son Dynasty. Under his rule,

Korea progressed in many ways,

such as the defences against Ja-

panese pirates and invaders

from Manchuria being greatly

improved.

King Sejong was a great sup-

porter of literature, science, and

technology, and so in 1420, the

Jiphyeonjeon, or Hall of Wor-

thies, a collection of scholars se-

lected by the king, was

established. One of the major as-

signments for these scholars

was to come up with a writing

system to represent the Korean

language.

At the time, Korean society

was extremely hierarchical, con-

sisting of three tiers: nobles,

commoners, and slaves. Under

this, it was almost impossible for

a slave to become free, or for any

commoner to become a noble. A

slave owner even had the right

to kill his slaves at any time, but

King Sejong outlawed that prac-

tice in 1444. Other restrictions

existed, such as women could

not inherit property.

The king knew that provid-

ing the country with the mass

literacy, which the simpler al-

phabet would provide, would be

a major step towards making all

the citizens more equal, rather

than just the power residing in

the noble, literate class. The rul-

ing aristocrats also knew the ef-

fect it would have, and strongly

opposed the new Hangul alpha-

bet. They argued with him,

claiming that it was wrong to de-

viate from the Chinese way of

doing things. Nevertheless, in

1446, Hangul was introduced to

Korean society in the Hunmin

Jeongeum, which outlined the

new alphabet.

As it entered the culture it

became used by most people, es-

pecially women and writers of

popular fiction. It was also very

effective at providing information

among the uneducated, since

the alphabet could be learned

easily in a few days.

It did not instantly replace

the old Chinese writing system,

though, as the aristocracy

worked to hard to suppress it.

Indeed, after King Sejong’s death

in 1450, they very nearly man-

age to quash it. The members of

the aristocracy were not the only

ones who feared an educated

population. The tenth king, King

Yeonsangun, was very destruct-

ive to the country. Commoners

mocked and insulted him with

posters written in Hangul, and

so he banned the use of it. His

tyranny ended in a coup which

placed Jungjong, his half-broth-

er on the throne. There was a

revival of Hangul in the 16th

century, with new literature

flourishing.

Statue of Sejong the Great,the fourth king of Joseon.

CCeelleebbrraattiioonnss

HHaanngguull DDaayy

Celebrations - Hangul Day


The AlphabetThe newly established Hangul

consisted of 28 characters, each

of these being based on a simpli-

fied diagram of the patterns

made by the mouth, teeth and

tongue when one made the

sound related to the character.

That is, they were direct repres-

entations of a spoken sound,

which may be many have

claimed Hangul looks like faces.

The small number of characters

and the simple lines makes it

easier to decipher and quicker to

learn than most Asian lan-

guages.

Hanja is still used on occa-

sion in South Korea, appearing

in newspaper headlines, but it is

no longer used in North Korea.

The DateWhile Hangul has been around

for over 500 years, it has only

become truly celebrated in the

last century. In 1926, the

Hangul Society celebrated the

octo-sexagesimal (480th) an-

niversary of the declaration of

Hangul.

They did this on November

4, which is the last day of the

ninth month of the lunar calen-

dar. The Society declared it the

first observance of “Gagyanal”

( ) , an early colloquial name

for Hangul. The name of the day

was changed to “Hangullal” in

1928. The date was changed to

October 29th of the Gregorian

calendar in 1931 . It was

changed again to October 28th

in 1934 when the claim was

made that the Julian calendar

must have been the one in use

in 1446.

This was challenged again in

1940 after a document was dis-

covered showing that the Hun-

min Jeongeum was announced

during the first ten days of the

ninth month. The tenth day of

that month according to the lun-

ar calendar in 1446 was the

same as October 9th of the Juli-

an calendar, so the date was

changed to that. When the

South Korean government be-

came established in 1945,

Hangul Day became a legal holi-

day on which all government

workers were excused from

work.

Just to confuse the date

more, in North Korea it is celeb-

rated on January 15th, which is

considered to be the creation

date of the alphabet.

CelebrationsHangul Day remained a national

holiday in South Korea until

1991 . When several large corpor-

ations wanted more work days

in the year, they put pressure on

the government and managed to

get the holiday eliminated. Ef-

forts were made to get this over-

turned, and finally, on November

1st, 2012, the National As-

sembly voted by a huge majority

to re-instate Hangul Day, start-

ing on October 9th 2013. That

means that this year will be the

second year of the restarted ob-

servation.

While it is a national day, it

is not a day off, so people still

need to be at their jobs. There is

also no single large scale, celeb-

ration, like with Mexico’s Day of

the Dead or Brazil’s Carnival.

Last year, several events related

to Hangul were held at different

tourist attractions and uni-

versities. Some of these were

Hangul calligraphy exhibitions

and writing contests. A true lan-

guage lovers celebration! PT

A page from the Hunmin Jeongeum Eonhae, a partial translation of Hunmin Jeongeum, theoriginal promulgation of Hangul.

Where Are You?

40 Parrot Time | Issue #6 | June 2013

This UNESCO World Heritage site is made up of five villages on the coast and the surrounding hillsides.The towns have been carefully built on man-made terraces of this rugged coastline over the centuries andare interconnected by trains, boats and paths.

The area was ruled by a Tuscan family in the 11th century, during which time various local tribes ofpeople moved down to the rough cliffs and began to carve a place for themselves. They built the firsthouses out of dry stone walls, hewed level terraces out of the rough slopes, and planted olive, vine, andlemon trees. When they were often attacked by pirates and barbarians, they built watchtowers and ap-pointed guards.

The houses were painted in a large variation of colours because the fisherman wanted to be able to easilysee their houses from their boats. Most of the families relied upon fishing for food and trade.

They survived for many centuries this way, both against attacks and natural disasters such as storms andfloods. Thanks to the construction of a railway line in the 14th century, they were able to end their isola-tion from most everyone else, but it also led to a turning away of many traditional activities. Poverty in-creased, forcing many citizens to emigrate.

The decline was reversed the 1970s when the development of the tourist brought back wealth to the com-munity, and it remains a very popular tourist destination today. It still suffers from weather problems,with one of the most recent being in 2011, when nine people were killed by flooding from torrential rains.

Where Are You?

Last month's answer: Angkor, Cambodia

Can you name this city and country?

TTaahhiittiiExplore the little known and little changed

Eastern Europe outcast, Belarus, which remains

free of the European Union’s influence of

capitalism. It is a land of friendly people and

earthy humour. The landscape is one of timeless

beauty with thick forests, cornflower fields and

picturesque villages.

For those that prefer an active nightlife and

cosmopolitan adventure, the three most

popular cities to see are Minsk, Brest and

Vitsebsk. They offer such sites as the Brest

Fortress, two national parks, and the childhood

home of painter Marc Chagall.

Leave the commonly followed paths of travel

and find a whole new experience in Belarus!

BBeell aarruussDestination

This ad was not paid for by any agency or person associated with Belarus

Packaged bread forsale in a grocerystore.

Words in Your Mouth - Bread


This month, another piece oflan-guage insight... bread.

read is one of the oldest man-made foods,

and it has been made in various forms using

a variety of ingredients and methods

throughout the world. The major grains that have

been used include wheat, rye, corn, barley, and

buckwheat. These grains are combined with water,

yeast, and other ingredients to form a dough

which is then formed into various shapes and

baked.

When trying to look at the history of the words

for “bread”, one has to take a step sideways and

include another word. The original name of the

food was “hlaf” in Old English, possibly from Old

English “hlifian” meaning “to raise higher”, refer-

ring to the rising of bread as it bakes. In Goth, the

word was “hlaif”, and in Old High German “leip”.

From this reference we can now see how some

of the modern words were derived. In the Slavic

languages especially, one can see a striking simil-

arity to the Old Teutonic “hlaibo-z”, in the Bosnian

(hljeb) , Polish (chleb) , and Russian (хлеб) , to name

a few. The Finno-Ugric words are also very close to

this, with Estonian (leib) , Finnish (leipä) , and

Saami (láibi) . Sound shifts and glides between lan-

guages would change the “h” to a “k” and the “b”

to a “p”.

We can also see how we got our modern Eng-

lish word “loaf” by dropping the “h” and lengthen-

ing the “a”. This is what I meant by our taking a

step sideways. “Loaf” should have been the name

of the food, based upon the old words. Instead, it

is now a measurement. We say “a loaf of bread”,

rather than simply “a loaf”. So, where do we get

the word “bread” from?

“Bread”, in Old English, meant “crumb,

morsel”, or simply “piece of food”. Old Norse was

“brot”, and Old High German was “brosma” mean-

ing “crumb”. This is also the base for the English

word “break”. From there, it can be seen how a

concept like “to break bread” could have linked the

two words. Indeed, later, Old High German shows

no clear distinction of meaning between “brôt” and

“hleib”. Through a shift of meaning, the food be-

came associated with the piece, rather than the

whole. What might have become “a bread of loaf”

for a single slice became “a loaf of bread”, meaning

the whole. This explains the Flemish “brood”,

Danish “brød”, and the Icelandic “brauð”, among

the other Germanic languages.

The Italic words, with a basic form of “pan”

seems to be taken directly from the Latin “panis”

for bread. Lewis & Short, in their A Latin Diction-

ary, point out that panis itself is derived from an

older root, pa = ’to feed’. Similar words that relate

to that are:

WWoorrddss iinn YYoouurr MMoouutthh

BBrreeaadd

14th century image of bread being baked



Latin:

• pabulum = food, nourishment, food for cattle,

fodder, pasturage, grass

• pasco, pascere, pāvi, pastum = to cause to eat,

feed, supply with food

Greek:

• [páomai] = to get, acquire

• [patéomai] = to eat

However, there is also the idea that the same

meaning shift may have taken place in the Latin,

with “panem” meaning “part of”. Evidence of such

a change can be seen in the Latin “pannus” mean-

ing “piece of cloth”. What a previous term for bread

would have been is unknown.

Turning to the Altaic languages, we find the

words “nan”, “non”, or “nun”. This has been traced

back to Old Persian “nagna”, meaning “naked,

bare”. It’s most likely a reference to the way the

food was baked: uncovered in an oven, rather than

covered in ash.

I will leave the other etymologies for the read-

ers who are interested. If you have some know-

ledge about other origins, let us know.

Related DerivativesWe get other words from basic “bread”. The word

“pantry” comes from Latin, and means “office or

room of a servant who is in charge of the food (lit-

erally, bread)”. “Companion” comes from Latin

“pan” and “com” (with) and means “bread fellow”.

The most interesting to me is “lady”. It comes from

the Old English “hlaefdige”, meaning “mistress of a

household”. “Hlaef” of course is “loaf” and “dige” is

“maid”, thus “bread maid”. Why this is of particu-

lar interest is that since “lady” would be the wife of

the master or lord of the house, it became a term

to refer to a woman of high standing, even though

the term “maid” has been deferred to someone who

is a servant.

SlangSeveral terms have arisen over time involving

bread. In English, “bread” and “dough” have the

slang meaning of “money”, such as “I haven’t got

the bread to buy that” or “I’m making lots of

dough”. This is similar to the term “bread and

butter”, which refers to a person’s basic needs. A

“bread-basket” can also refer to a person’s stom-

ach. “Bread and circuses”, from the early 1900’s,

is a slang for “food and entertainment” which was

provided by the government to keep the population

happy, and is actually taken from Latin: “Duas

tantum res anxius optat, Panem et circenses”.

ConclusionWhether it’s a bread of loaf, a loaf of bread, food

for cattle, or simply nude food, bread has been a

staple of the worlds diet for thousands of year. We

eat it in many forms, from flat and salty to soft

and round. We use it in our religious ceremonies,

as wafers in communion, and in our festivals,

such as buns for Fastalavn. And we use it simply

as food, or even “wrappers” for food, as in sand-

wiches, pizzas, falafels, and as buns for hot dogs.

It is perhaps our most versatile of foods, and is

sure to always be a “piece” of our lives. PT

Large outside bread oven

A couple of loaves ofhard bread



Other pictures related to bread

From top-left, clockwise: Wheat plants which are used to make bread; Street vendors selling

bread; Person making bread by hand; Several kinds of bread; Bread on sale at the front of a

store; Some slices of bread



GERMANICWestern

Afrikaans: broodBrabants: brôotDutch: broodEnglish: breadFlemish: broodFrisian: i t brea (the ~) /

in bôle (a ~)German: BrotLimburgian: broedLow Saxon: Broot/ BroodLuxembourgish: BroutRhine Franconian: BrotScots: breid

NorthernDanish: brødFaroese: breyðIcelandic: brauðNorwegian: brødSwedish: bröd

EasternCrimean Gothic: broe

ITALICAragonese: panAsturian: panBolognese: panBergamasco: pàBresciano: pàCalabrese: pana / paniCatalan: paDzoratâi: panFerrarese: pànFrench: painFurlan: panGalician: panItalian: paneLadino: pan / çuspa / casoleLatin: panisLombardo: panMantuan: panMarchigiano: pàMudnés: panNeopolitan: paneOccitan: panPapiamentu: panParmigiano: panPiedmontese: panPortuguese: pãoPugliese: paneReggiano: pànRomagnolo: pènRoman: paneRomanian: pîinea / pâineaRomansch: paunSardinian LSU: pane

Sardinian Campidanesu: paniSicilian: paniSpanish: panTriestino: panValencian: paVenetian: panViestano: pèn'Zeneize: pan

FINNO-UGRICEstonian: leibFinnish: leipäHungarian: kenyérSaami: láibi

GREEKGreek: (το) ψωµί [(to) psomí]

BALTICEastern

Lithuanian: duonaLatvian: maizi

WesternPrussian: geîtikâ, geytkoSudovian: (tablebread) geitis, geitika

(wholegrain): sampisinis

SLAVICWestern

Czech: chléb / chlebaPolish: chlebSlovak: chliebUpper Sorbian: chlěb

SouthernBosnian: hljebBulgarian: хлябCroation: kruhMacedonian: лебSerbian: хлеб / hlebSlovenian: kruh

EasternBelorussian: хлебRussian: хлебUkrainian: хлiб

CELTICBrythonic

Breton: baraCornish: baraWelsh: bara

GoidelicIrish: aránManx: arranScots-Gaelic: aran



MALAYO-POLYNESIANBahasa Indonesia: rotiFijian: madraiHawaiian: palaoaMalagasy: mofoMalay: rotiMaori: paraaoa / taroRapanui: haraoaSamoan: falaoaTagalog: tinapay

ALTAICAzeri: çörəkKazakh: нанKyrghyz: нанTatar: икмəкTurkish: ekmekTurkmen: nan / çörekUyghur: نانUzbek: nonMongolian: талх

SEMITICArabic: زبخMaltese: hobzHebrew: םחל

SINO-TIBETANChinese: [miànbāo]Cantonese: [min baau]

AUSTROASIATICVietnamese: bánh mì

KADAIThai:Lao:

INDO-IRANIANBengali:Gujarati:Hindi:Kurdish Kurmanji: nanKurdish Sorani:Marathi:Punjabi:Tajik: non

ALBANIANAlbanian: bukë

ARMENIAN

Armenian:

CAUCASIANGeorgian:

BALTICLatvian: maizeLithuanian: duona

MISCELLANEOUSBergamasco: pàCaló: jumerí / manró / artife / tatóLingala: l ipaLunfardo: marroco

AMERINDIANAymara: ttanttaGuarani: mbujapeMapunzugun: kofke ; covqueQuechua (Peruvian): t'antaQuechua (Ecuatorian): tantaYucatec: waah/waajTupi: beîu

BANTUMaasai: emukateShona: chingwaSwahili: mkateZulu: isinkwa

NIGER-CONGOWolof: mbuuruLingala: l ipa

NAKHO-DAGESTANIANChechen: beepig

INDEPENDENTBasque: ogiJapanese: [pan]Korean:

CONSTRUCTEDCanis: panesEsperanto: panoLingua Franca Nova: panInterlingua: panSlovio: hleb [хлеб]

Credits


Letter From the EditorWriter: Erik ZidoweckiImages:Petey: Network orb

Religion in CultureWriter: Erik ZidoweckiImages:Petey: Duomo in Florence (title); Tori i gate; Buddhist shrine; "Great Buddha" at Kōtoku-in; Bell Tower and Baptistery;The Creation of Adam; Construction of the Tower of Babel; Carnival celebration on Tenerife; Murō-j i temple; Stonelantern; The Last Judgement

Languages in Peril - Decline of the Gallo-ItalicsWriter: Lucil le MartinImages:Martina Rathgens: Ligurian vil lage (title)Susana Freixeiro: Linguistic map of I talyJoe Mabel: Young people on bicyclesHpschaefer: Piazza di FerrariJk4u59: Oneglia, Imperiahozinja: Sunrise at Bergamo old townFriedrichstrasse: Via Zuavi in MelegnanoPeter Broster: Bra of PiedmontPetey: Victor Amadeus I ISources:• "Emil iano-Romagnolo language" Wikipedia <http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil ian-Romagnolo>• "Emil iano-Romagnolo" Lingua Emil iano-Romagnola By Michael San Fil ippo<http: //ital ian.about.com/od/emil ianoromagnolo/a/aa1 02809a.htm>• "Emil ia-Romagna" Wikipedia <http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil ia-Romagna>• "Ligurian (Romance language)" Wikipedia <http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligurian_%28Romance_language%29>• "Liguria" Wikipedia <http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liguria>• "Lombard language" Wikipedia <http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_language>• "Lombardy" Wikipedia <http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombardy>• "Piedmontese language" Wikipedia <http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmontese_language>• "Piedmont" Wikipedia <http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmont_%28Italy%29>

Language Learning and TranslationWriter: Hidson GuimarãesImages:Petey: dictionary

Word on the Streets - Italian GreatsWriter: Sofia OzolsImages:Petey: Dante, CalvinoSources:• "Dante Alighieri" From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia <http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri>• "Dante Biography" bio. <http: //www.biography.com/people/dante-926591 2#synopsis&awesm=~oFq3IbVWLnOrcA>• "I talo Calvino" From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia <http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I talo_Calvino>• "I talo Calvino" Famous Authors <http: //www.famousauthors.org/italo-calvino>• "I tal ica" Biography of I talo Calvino <http: //www.ital ica.rai. it/eng/principal/topics/bio/calvino.htm>

Book LookWriter: Erik Zidowecki

At The Cinema - XinguWriter: Erik ZidoweckiSources:• "Xingu" Internet Movie Database <http: //www.imdb.com/title/tt21 42055/>Globo Filmes, O2 Filmes, Alambique Desti laria de Ideias Unipessoal, Breaking Glass Pictures, Cinemax

Celebrations - Hangul DayWriter: Sonja KrügerImages:Francisco Anzola: Busy street corner (title)Mammique at fr.wikipedia / Camil le Harang: Statue of Sejong the GreatPetey: Hunmin Jeongeum EonhaeSources:• "Happy Hangul Day" Emma Lee, Korea 4 Expats <http: //www.korea4expats.com/news-hangul-day-history.html>• "Hangul Day" Language Log <http: //itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002529.html>• "Happy Hangul Day!" Moll ie Kirk <http: //asiasociety.org/blog/asia/happy-hangul-day>• "Hangul Day" Wikipedia <http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul_Day>

Credits


Where Are You?Writer: Sonja KrügerImages:Petey: Mystery image

Words in Your Mouth - BreadWriter: Erik ZidoweckiImages:TobyD: Panini (title)Petey: Bread in store; old bakery; hard bread; bread oven; wheat; vendors; making bread; loaves on table; loaves instore front; sl iced breadSources:• "A New Latin Dictiony" Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short<https://archive.org/stream/LewisAndShortANewLatinDictionary/lewisandshort#page/n0/mode/2up>

All images are Copyright - CC BY-SA (Creative Commons Share Alike) by their respective owners, except forPetey, which is Public Domain (PD) or unless otherwise noted.

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parrot time - issue 10 - july / august 2014

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